


we build our altar here

by WelcomeToTheBadlands



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Trauma, Comfort/Angst, Conqueror Rey, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Game of Thrones, Magic, Mutual Pining, Secret Crush, loosely inspired, rey has no chill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-27 12:14:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21391969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WelcomeToTheBadlands/pseuds/WelcomeToTheBadlands
Summary: Kylo Ren is a reluctant King that isn't that great of a ruler. Rey is a conqueror who burns through corrupt kingdoms like they were made of paper. When she arrives at his door, the two of them find that they are more alike than they would like to admit. Kylo points out that there's a more formidable foe that the both of them need to worry about, but will the two of them be able to team up?
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. "Does the smoke still choke you?"

_ Once upon  _

_ a time,  _

_ The princess  _

_ rose from the ashes _

_ Her dragon lovers _

_ Made her  _

_ & _

_ Crowned herself  _

_ The _

_ Motherfucking queen _

_ Of herself _

_ — how’s that for a happy ending?  _

_ amanda lovelace _

The first time that Rey experiences loss, she doesn’t remember it. A war lord raided the cities where she lived as a little girl, and he took her as spoils. She was said to be the prettiest girl of all the lands at age five. She doesn’t remember it. Her first memory is of a man being cruel to her though. His touch hurts and it’s rough, but he stopped by the time she reached twelve. Like most men, they get bored. They get ambitious, because they think that because they have armies, they have the qualifications to rule a nation. 

He sold her off to a duke and died of syphilis two years later. Rey laughed when she heard the news. The Duke is kinder to her than the warlord but ultimately just as boring. There's an uprising of slaves in the city and when someone comes to the castle to kill the Duke, as he owns many slaves, Rey gave them the key before being escorted to safety. She was sold off to another war lord. 

This one is different. He doesn’t touch her and she can at least be thankful to him for that. It’s the first time she has feelings for one of her husbands, and it isn’t for a healthy reason. She admired him for the reasons that should just be common sense. The bare minimum of how someone should treat you should not be enough for you to love them. She also met Finn Trooper when she was with him. He was a knight, and she was a fifteen year old girl who had no idea what she was doing with herself. 

He presented her with a weighted ornate silver dagger, two eggs that were supposedly those of dragons, and pledged his allegiance to her. 

Rey wasn’t sure why he would pledge his allegiance to her and not the man that she married, but she appreciated that all the same. She got pregnant and she was terrified, Finn was the one who comforted her, not her husband. Her husband has some strange sickness that no healer seemed to be able to cure, and the same day he passes Rey has a miscarriage. 

Her husband was put onto a pyre to be burned and sent on to the next life, Rey consumed by grief decided to join him. Finn tried his best to stop her, but she goes into the flames and as they lick up her skin she felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. Rey carried the eggs with her, they felt warm against her skin as she sat down next to the pyre. The flames did not burn her. 

They gave her new life, and two dragons. 

There she began to build her army. 

She’s sixteen when she takes her first city, and frees five hundred slaves in the process, slowly adding to her army. She stayed long enough to make sure that a Lord of good stock who was appropriately anti-slavery took charge of governing, long enough to make sure that he would not do anything that would make the city fall back into slavery when she was gone. 

She was seventeen by the time she took three more cities, amassing an army that nearly rivalled that of the dictatorial leaders Snoke and Palpatine. She was not interested in leading or politics yet though, she was only interested in knowing that she could end slavery and other injustices that men had put into place. 

She doesn’t need a man anymore, she has a friend, and soon makes two more in the translator Rose Tico and the banished knight Poe Dameron. Rose is elevated to the position of Rey’s hand, and she’s quite knowledgeable in economic decisions as well. The first time she and Rose met, Rey was making her way to the old city of Theed and Rose had come to her tent in the dead of night, Poe came presenting her in the dead of night.

“Your grace,” Poe started with, “we found her on the edge of the camp, requesting asylum.” Rey had been getting ready to sleep when Rose was brought to her tent, but she had her full awareness to the girl. 

Rose was staring at her, scared. She looked like a frightened lamb. Poe let go of her and Rey motioned to let her go. “Leave us,” He did. Rose stood there for a moment before dropping to her knees. “Get up, there’s no reason to do that.” Rose got back up. “Tell me why you’re here of all places.” It was hot and they were getting used to the mosquitoes that would bite relentlessly. 

It was not a good place to be. 

“I - my sister - my employer killed her. I was going to be next. I had no place to go. I heard that you may take the city and I thought - I can be of use to you. Please, in any way possible. I’m a translator, I know twenty languages.” 

“Twenty?” 

“Yes, twenty.” 

“Well then, you’re hired, Rose. Know that I’m taking you into war, you may go hungry and you may get sick but I will do my best to protect you.” 

“Thank you, your grace.” 

“Just call me Rey,” She said. 

“Rey,” Rose said, “I won’t let you down.” That first night, Rey allowed Rose to sleep in the same bed as her as they found her a cot to sleep on. The next day, they took the city of Theed. Rey had Rose point out her former employer. He was the first of the wealthy to be crucified. 

It’s at the age of twenty when she can say that she’s won every single battle she has wage amongst the people that fear her. She needs to make a decision. Coruscant or Yavin? “Neither Yavin or Coruscant have very many slaves, just those of the black market. However, Coruscant has indentured servitude and fighting pits that the Lords turn a blind eye to or enjoy themselves.” Finn told her. She makes her decision that night. She leads her armies towards Coruscant.


	2. the reluctant leader

_ I hold _

_ my tongue _

_ Out of fear _

_ So often _

_ That  _

_ Blood _

_ Has  _

_ Made _

_ A permanent _

_ Home  _

_ In _

_ the spaces  _

_ between my teeth. _

_ — amanda lovelace _

When Ben was a young boy, he was told that his parents were killed in a freak accident. He was told by the then Lord Snoke, that he was to be left in his care. He was told that his uncle had abandoned him and that he would have to take his role as King one day, starting out as the leader of Coruscant. Ben was thrust into politics, even though he never wanted to be. 

He tried never to complain though, a lot of people had it way worse than he did. He tried to see the highlights to everything. At least he had shelter, food on the table, there was some semblance of security for his life. 

Again, not everyone could say the same. 

He was ten when Snoke taught him all that he knew about politics. There were a lot of things that he thought were wrong about the old man’s point of view, but he learned quickly not to say anything. Ben learned what it was like to go hours without sleep, scared of the shadows on the wall, of the assassins that Snoke claimed would sneak into Ben’s bedroom and kill him if he didn’t do exactly as Snoke asked.

At thirteen, Ben has killed a man. 

He doesn’t like to talk about it. 

At fifteen, a strange man comes to the castle and claims to be Ben’s father. Ben’s father is dead. Ben doesn’t see him after Ser Hux reported the incident to Snoke. Fifteen, and he still tries to pretend that he isn’t a monster as much as he can. Where Snoke yells at servants, Ben tries to stow away extra food that he’s not eating and give it to as many servants as he can. 

His only rule is that the people who took the food he saved must not say that it was him that gave it to him. 

He was sixteen when Snoke found out. 

He didn’t make the mistake to show him that he could be kind again. The blood that he tasted in his mouth reminded him that he could not afford to do that if he was going to rule one day. He’s stupid and childish. He learned that soon enough. 

It wasn’t until the age of twenty three that he sheds the name of Ben Solo, opting for the name of a monster instead. The name of Kylo Ren. The kitchen staff and other servants no longer want to talk to him. He decided that that was for the best. He wouldn’t be friends with himself either. He couldn’t blame them. 

He was cursed with a burden that he believed that he wouldn’t be able to bare. Kylo Ren is different. He knows war strategy and how to keep the people of Coruscant placated. Snoke moved on to bigger things, claiming a large country as his own and becoming a King. Kylo became the King of smaller country where things aren’t great, but they aren’t awful either. Slowly, crime started to be eradicated, but not in a way that was necessarily always just. 

There was still a lot of corruption in Coruscant, and Kylo wasn’t sure how to fix it, so sometimes that corruption went ignored. There was a time where he would still care about that conflict and corruption when he was young. But that was the thing. He was young and naive then, and didn’t realize that no matter what he did, there were bad people doing things and not caring about the consequences. 

In that, Kylo felt helpless. 

He would never admit that though. 

Kylo tried his best to keep the slavers out of Coruscant, it was something that he spent most of his efforts doing. Knowing that a lot of the elder generation within the walls of the main city still thought that it was their right to own a person. He had wellness checks performed at each home once a month, as well as the tax gathering. 

Kylo is twenty nine the first time he hears of the girl far east. She was said to be heading west, in the way of Coruscant. “She’s said to have dragons with her,” Ser Hux tells him, “whore turned sellsword turned Conqueress? Conqueror?” 

“Conqueror,” Kylo said gruffly. “We don’t need to unnecessarily gender a word just because this girl is female.” 

“How progressive of you,” 

Kylo sighed, turning to the scrolls and maps he had been pouring over earlier. “Is there a point to the story that you were telling me, Hux. Or do you mean to present me with more idle gossip. Dragons have been dead for years, the gods ordained it so.” 

“The gods must have ordained that they come back, because she has some. Hundreds of people have seen them. Half grown beings that can burn men alive. She’s won battles with them, and it’s said that she comes to a Kingdom when she thinks that there are injustices being committed.” That’s what makes Kylo stop. “She’s taken Theed, Mos Eisley, The City of Clouds, Takodana. How long before she comes here?” 

“What makes you think she’s going to come here? You listed cities and countries that had slavery, we are not a country of slavers.” 

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean that she would not deem some of the stuff that we do corrupt. This woman seems to have a rather black and white sense of morality. I’m just saying, perhaps we should prepare.” Kylo scoffs and tells him that nothing like a girl with fantastical dragons is not going to arrive at their gates. 

Kylo has nearly reached thirty by the time that his guards see something on the horizon of the main city, and a man is beckoned through to the castle to deliver a message. He’s too pretty and too young to be a General, but that’s what he presented himself as. “State your business,” Kylo pretended to be uninterested, but he sees the crest of the dragon on the man’s breastplate and something tells him that the girl that he had heard so much about had come knocking. 

“My Lord,” Kylo cocked to the side as Hux quickly corrected him. 

“You’re already not off to a good start, you will address him as your king when you are in this country.” 

“Forgive me,” Poe shook his head, “but I only serve one and she is not of this country. Besides, the last I heard Snoke was the King.” 

“Then your knowledge is fairly outdated. He’s moved up to better crowns.” 

“Forgive me again, then.” Kylo was sure that he wasn’t sorry, in fact, he was pretty sure that pissing Hux off made him feel special on the inside. “I came here on behalf of Rey, Conqueror of the East and Mother of Dragons, she came here to extend her invitation to dine with her.” 

“Why do you address this Rey by titles when she is not of a royal house?” Hux asks. 

“I think she’s proved blood does not make you a qualified leader,” 

“Is that an insult—” 

“Please, Hux. Shut up. She wants me to dine with her, why?” 

“To discuss things, to introduce herself to you. “

“She can dine in this castle, but I’m not going out somewhere where I can just as easily get my head cut off.” 

“Trust me,  _ l- _ I mean your grace. If she wanted you dead, your head would be up on a pike right now. You won’t want to refuse her. Come by sundown, she’ll be waiting. She has wine.” With that, he left without even being dismissed. 


End file.
